IASF Magazine, April 1991

This was the 14th anniversary double issue with 324 pages compared to the then normal 192 page issue. A lot of material packed into a really good, above average issue. Two stories from this issue made Gardner Dozois’s 9th annual best of the year collection. The biggie in this issue was by Nancy Kress, “Beggars in Spain”, that went on to win both the 1991 Nebula and 1992 Hugo awards for best novella. I never read the expanded novel version, but I remembered the novella as a remarkable work. It has been 17 or 18 years since I first read the story and it held up fairly well on a re-read. It is perhaps a little too “talky”. I think it suffers a bit at the beginning with an initial cast of unsympathetic and unlikeable characters. However the story really kicks into gear once we get past that beginning.

It is a very philosophical story. It considers prejudice, challenging the norms of society, and what does an individual owe to other individuals and society. This is contained within the story of the birth of twin girls, one of which has been genetically enhanced (as have other children) so that she does not need to sleep. The result of the genetic modifications is to create two classes of humans. How society and the individuals react, the sleepers and the sleepless, is the heart of the story. At the end we are left hanging, not knowing what lies in the future, which I suppose is the reason this was later expanded into a full novel.

The other long story in this issue is a novella by Mike Resnick, “Bully!”, an alternative history romp with Teddy Roosevelt on safari in the Belgian Congo. It was nominated for several awards in 1991 including the Nebula and Hugo, but won only the SF Chronicle award for best novella in 1991. I’m guessing this story was inspired in part by Mike Resnick’s own numerous African Safaris.

“Bully!” is a character driven story that I really enjoyed (but I enjoy most Resnick, truthfully). At the beginning it takes a divergence from true history where Teddy Roosevelt, post-presidency, aged 51 and not ready to retire from the world, agrees to an offer he had declined in our world, and becomes involved with a band of white hunters as part of a grand scheme to more or less carve an American protectorate out of the Congo/Central Africa. With 53 men. His plan involves bringing the riches of civilization and “democracy” to the natives and getting the Belgians out of the Congo. There is a lot of very witty dialogue.

Asimov’s editorial is on the topic of “suspense”. What makes suspense in a mystery novel? Is it murder, mayhem and fear? He argues that what creates suspense is “incomplete information”.

The lead-off short story is a robot story by Isaac Asimov, “Robot Visions”. I enjoyed the story. In the near future, temporal scientists send a robot 200 years into earth’s future to have a look around and return with information. They fear the worst with earth’s overpopulation and all the myriad problems we face today. But the robot returns with a report of a rosy future following the “sad” times. The temporal scientists are stunned. There is a twist to this, of course, which I thought a good one.

The novelette “The July Ward” by Sharon N. Farber, writing as S. N. Dyer, received a 1992 Nebula nomination (losing to "Danny Goes to Mars" by Pamela Sargent). It is a rather dark drama set in a hospital with a very unusual ward in the basement. But is it science fiction? I dunno. It reads very much like a television hospital show until a twisty end that is perhaps more Rod Serling ghost story, or maybe just a touch of strange, rather than science fiction. I liked the story but I’m not sure it belonged here.

“The Odor of Cocktail Cigarettes” is a short story by Ian Watson. An alien plays humans in a game to decide their future. Not the most original idea. A science fiction writer serves as one of a group of humans - the first contact team - who must meet the deadly gaming challenge of an alien. It came off better than I expected since it wasn’t what I expected.

The other story making Dozois’s best of the year cut was the novelette, “A History of the Twentieth Century, with Illustrations” by Kim Stanley Robinson. I’m a big fan of Robinson’s stories, for the most part. This is a good story, but it is not science fiction as far as I could discern. It is part physical journey and travelogue of the British Isles to the “world’s end” in the north, at the Brough of Birsey in the Orkneys. It is also part historical travelogue and part psychic journey by the traveler as he attempts to write a very short history of the twentieth century and cannot get past that it was one never-ending series of wars with an immense death toll. The only element remotely SF is that the writer is writing from a point about four years past the time of publication, but that fact has no bearing on the story.

What happens to a man when day by day his world changes – in the details – until virtually nothing is as he remembered. “Details”, by Lawrence Person, is an enjoyable short story that tackles this subject, with some fun and some sadness.

David Ira Cleary’s novelette “Building A Tower To The Sky” was a very satisfying story. Human’s have come to a planet with a humanoid population (the Tanii) who now build towers and pyramids trying to reach the great seas in the skies so that they too could travel between the stars like man. The story focuses on Raunder, a young rascally Tanii, who finds a severely injured human (which the Tanii refer to as “hairy-tops”). He hides it away deep in caves. Then repercussions follow.

The short story “TV Time” by Mark L. Van Name is a light bit of fluff where a disabled Dad gets a new wall sized HD TV that turns out to be the answer to all the family problems. My least favorite story in the issue, but it wasn’t bad and I didn’t dislike it.

A novelette by Paul Witcover, “Lighthouse Summer” starts off as a terrific coming of age story. Richly drawn characters and a vivid eye for describing the scenery pull one in to the story of Mark who spends his time at a falling down abandoned lighthouse. One day he finds an old sea Captain setting up residence and living in his lighthouse. Did the old man wash ashore in the fierce storm of the night before? Their evolving friendship is quite believable, as is Mark’s home life situation, but I found the climax and end of the story somewhat of a letdown from what had come before. Still, an above average story that I enjoyed a lot.

I’m generally not big on SF poetry, but the Haiku flavored one in this issue by Joe Haldeman, “For Chesley Bonestell”, I really did like.

Greg Egan was writing some excellent short fiction in the early 90’s. His “novelette” included in the digest, “In Numbers” didn’t win any awards but maybe it should have. On the first manned interstellar exploration voyage about 150 years in the future, mankind suddenly faces unexpected limits. One by one the crewmembers lose their minds to an unidentified illness, until only the doctor remains. Good characterization and suspense gave me a story I really enjoyed.

Overall this was a very high quality issue, sort of typical of the era when the high quality issues really spoiled me. ( )